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Baron von Fancyhat
“The man had sired many children both in and out of wedlock, but neither the children nor women did he love as much as this one hat. It was because of this hat that the man had even renamed his entire house, and while his advisers had informed him how unsuitable it was to rename yourself after a hat, the man had done so, forever being known as Baron von Fancyhat.” Overview Baron Von Fancyhat is quite a versatile character who specialises in Melee combat but also offers limited ranged attack and support abilities. He is quite hard to kill thanks to his Plate Armour but suffers from low energy making him a less than ideal harvester and reasonably easy for enemy’s to avoid. Offence Baron Von Fancyhat is one of the strongest Melee fighters in the game. This is mostly due to the quality of his static abilities: His Longsword grants +1 Dmg to all of his attacks while his Plate Armour reduces virtually all incoming melee damage by -2. This means the vast majority of combat card combinations are going to work in your favour. On top of this he has a respectable 2” range and a solid Melee stat of ’5’. However, in practice, enemy characters will rarely be foolish enough to initiate combat with you so you will come to take the attacker bonus for granted and his Melee stat can feel more like a ‘7’. With Eric nearby you will frequently be drawing 9 cards with each attack. With this many cards you can expect to throw out a lot of critical hits for some quite impressive damage. Fancyhat’s signature move is very juicy too offering a follow up attack on top of your regular damage. It might not be obvious on first reading but all of these factors add up to make him quite the beast in melee… He also has a ranged option in the form of a Pistol. However with his low energy, once fired, it will take Fancyhat a full turn’s worth of energy to reload and so should generally be saved until the final turns to be used on an already wounded enemy who is trying to stay out of reach. Alternatively, if things aren’t going so well and Fancyhat is heavily wounded himself, you might not want to risk a Melee Attack action in case you take fatal points of damage, so once again you’ll be glad you saved the Pistol shot until the late game. Resilience 7 Wds is slightly on the low side for a human but as previously mentioned Fancyhat’s Plate Armour is superb at keeping him alive. You only really need to be wary of attacks that can deal large damage numbers in a single powerful hit or Magical attacks. Firespitter is one of the most trouble enemy’s for Fancyhat to face so try and keep him occupied with other characters. Harvesting Fancyhat is not much of a harvester - best leave that grubby work to the lower folk. His low energy of only 2 is generally best spent either hitting people or moving into position to guard stones (by putting them entirely within his engagement range preventing enemy’s for taking harvest actions). However, because he is quite hard to kill, it can sometimes be a good move to collect any easy stones that fall inside your deployment zone with him on turn 1 before moving forward to take up a more aggressive possition. Support & Control Fancyhat’s only support and control utility comes from his Rallying Cry ability. On first reading this ability may seem very powerful but its actually quite tricky to use effectively. Since it only restores energy that has already been spent during the turn so far rather, than simply giving out energy tokens, you will only get value from it if you're making use of the ‘reaction step’ and ‘going for it’ rules to spend energy outside of a your character's activations. There are several uses for the ability but they are all somewhat subtle and require a good understanding of to core mechanics of the game to use effectively. However once mastered, a skilled player can use this ability to create ‘gotcha’ moments. For example, if you have a character with a 2” Melee range who has not yet activated and your opponent moves in with a 1” Melee range attacker, you can use all of your character's energy on reaction steps to keep backing off with each step the attacker makes forward, until both your character and the attacker have exhausted all their energy, and the wannabe attacker has nothing left to hit you with. Then you fire off the Baron’s Rallying Cry restoring your character to full energy. Now when your 2” Melee range character activates they can hit back with a full energy clip, safe from any harm by staying or stepping beyond the enemy's 1" Melee range, and now you'll be receiving the +2 Melee stat bonus from being the attacker as well. There are many other tricks possible including ‘speeding up’ friendly models by moving them forward using reaction steps during your opponents turn, then topping them back up with Rallying Cry so that they can get an extra 3” or saving an exhausted friendly character who now finds them-self in a vulnerable position where some extra energy for ‘reaction steps’ or ‘go for it’s could save their life. Tips, Tricks and Troupe Builds Fancyhat’s only real limitation is his poor energy level of only 2. Any character that can increase his energy is worth considering as an addition to your troupe and (in possibly the most predictable combo in the game – ) Eric the Squire in particular is a match made in heaven for Fancyhat. A 4 energy Fancyhat courtesy or Eric's My Hero ability can seriously put out the hurt and Eric also offers a personal healing service and a Melee buff to boot. In a pinch, Eric can even pull Fancyhat up the board towards targets. This is done by advancing Eric ahead, making a Melee attack that triggers his ‘You’ll Regret That’ signature move trading places with the Baron and placing him right next to your intended victim.